Scottish Widows has appointed Carolyn Jones, policy and strategy head from the Money and Pensions Service (Maps), as its retirement director.
Jones spent three years at Maps, after spending the bulk of her career - some 15 years - at Fidelity, where she worked across defined contribution and workplace pensions, before overseeing life insurance.
Scottish Widows intends to use her expertise to explore new opportunities, such as open finance and the development of pension dashboards.
Jones’ appointment follows the announcement of a new chief executive at Scottish Widows, Chirantan Barua, who is currently global head of strategy at HSBC.
This is yet another strategic step we are taking to help create a pensions industry fit for the future and navigate new opportunities such as open finance and the development of pension dashboards.Emma Watkins, Scottish WidowsPart of Lloyds Banking Group's executive team, Barua will oversee its insurance, pensions and investments business unit, which sits under the Scottish Widows brand.
His soon-to-be predecessor, Antonio Lorenzo, will retire in late spring after seven years at the helm.
The bank is also working on a “big overhaul” of its systems on the insurance side so advisers can access protection products more easily.
Scottish Widows’ retirement service tracks annualised annuity payments of £1.1bn, with a client book of 63,500 and around 12,000 in drawdown.
On Jones’ appointment, retirement managing director Emma Watkins said Scottish Widows intends “to really deepen” its reputation as “a world class retirement proposition”.
She added: “This is yet another strategic step we are taking to help create a pensions industry fit for the future and navigate new opportunities such as open finance and the development of pension dashboards.”
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
